So What Happened to the Nestle Magic Balls?
In July of this year, Nestle created the Magic Ball in response to the popular Kinder Surprize Egg of Europe. The FDA warned Nestle that the Magic Balls violate a federal law that prohibits non-nutrition items from being imbedded in food, unless an exception was granted. This is why the Kinder Eggs are not
sold here.
The FDA did not grant Nestle the exception, but did not take
immediate action because its own review concluded there was not
an imminent hazard to the public. However there was a storm of
complaints lead by Nestle's rival, Mars Inc, which caused consumer groups to jump on the bandwagon, despite the fact that
the toy portion of Nestle Magic was approved by the Consumer Product Safety Commission as being safe, that is, too large to
go down the windpipes of children. Nestle agreed to re-lable
the product to add that they are intended for children over age
3, but the increasing pressure from government caused Nestle to finally
pull the product from the US market in early October.
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